Texas softball picked to finish third in Big 12

AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas softball program has been tabbed to finish third in the annual Big 12 Conference preseason coaches poll released on Thursday morning.

Two-time defending NCAA Champion Oklahoma earned the top spot for the ninth time in the last 10 seasons after receiving six of the seven possible first-place votes (coaches couldn’t vote for their own team) and 36 total points.

Baylor picked up the remaining first-place nod to rate second with 31 points, while the Longhorns garnered 24 total points to sit third. Oklahoma State (23 points), Kansas (12 points), Iowa State (11 points) and Texas Tech (10 points) rounded out positions four through seven in the preseason league standings.

UT has been picked to finish among the Big 12 Conference’s top three teams for eight consecutive seasons. Texas is a four-time regular-season league champion (2002, 2003, 2006 & 2010), which ranks second-most among the seven league schools. In each of the four years that the Horns secured the conference title, UT was not the coaches’ preseason favorite to win the crown. In 2002 the Longhorns were chosen third behind Nebraska and Oklahoma, while in 2003, UT was voted second behind the Cornhuskers. Texas trailed only Texas A&M in the 2006 preseason poll and was picked fifth before eventually winning the 2010 Big 12 Championship.

Texas is returning seven players that started at least 18 games (six started at least 26) and 12 letter winners for the upcoming 2018 campaign that combined to total 43% of the runs, hits and doubles, 54% of both the triples and HR’s and 52% of the RBIs as well as four pitchers that managed 76% of the pitching victories and 70% of both the innings pitched and strikeouts.

For season ticket information, please call 512-471-3333 or order online at TexasSports.com for as little as $59. Single-game and mini-plan tickets are now also on sale for the entire 2018 home campaign.